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Logitech Wireless Desktop MK 700

You and me spend a large amount of time right smack in front of the computer, hence making it extremely important to have good hardware from reputable manufacturers, and Logitech is one of those who tend to come up with above average devices with the Logitech Wireless Desktop MK 700 mouse-and-keyboard combination being one of them.

This keyboard will come with Logitech Incurve keys that cradle your fingers for greater comfort, while the integrated LCD dashboard allows you to check out all important keyboard functions and status at a glance. As for the MX 700

Realtek HD Audio 2.30 Driver

The latest download of Realtek's HD audio driver version available for Windows XP and Vista, it runs under Windows 7 too.

The HD audio driver version for Realtek chips is available for download on our server. This download offers both the Windows XP and Vista binaries, the files contain drivers for the 32 Bit and 64 Bit versions. All Realtek HD audio chips, which are common on many motherboards and in notebooks, are supported.

MSI P55 mobo with Hydra chip spotted

During the last week we have seen many new P55 based motherboards, among them the new line of ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. But check this out from MSI. It is a somewhat hidden product within the MSI product line - It is called the Big Bang, which is a P55 motherboard with Lucid Hydra chip - which should enable multi-gpu operation of both NVIDIA and ATI based video cards on the same motherboard.

Here at Guru3D.com we still, say .. why the heck would you want to do that anyways ? As you pay more for the Lucid chip instead of just paying for two similar cards.

Lucid is an israeli company, located at Kfar-Neter, which is developing the Hydra Chip, which is a Chip that should enable the use of NVIDIA and ATI video cards on the same motherboard.the company holds some cooperation agreements with some of the biggest players in hardware industry, and the motherboard that we preview today is one of the first products of this cooperations.

The Lucid Hydra chip, as mentioned before should enable the use of 2 different video cards together on the same motherboard. We have been told in the past that there will be different versions of the chip - one will enable the usage of video cards like HD4870 along with a HD4650 for example , another version will enable the usage of NVIDIA based video cards together - like a GTX260 together with 9600GT for example, and of course one version will enable a mix of video cards -ATI video card together with a Nvidia video card on the same motherboard. The Hydra chip is responsible for the Balance and link between the different video cards.

MSI P55 "The Big Bang" is a P55 based motherboard, the Hydra Chip is located between the CPU socket and the first/Upper PCI-Express Slot. As for now we can't tell which one of the versions of the Hydra is placed on the motherboard, and how it performs -- via iopanel.net

BFG EX-1000 Modular Power Supply

BFG Technologies announced the EX-1000 today, a brand new modular power supply that uses Frequency Conversion Technology in order to imitate a smaller power supply for better low load efficiency.

The new model is up to 80-percent efficient with a +5VSB efficiency. It also got an 80 PLUS Bronze rating. This is pretty impressive and places the EX-1000 above many other power supplies in terms of efficiency. You can get the EX-1000 from BFG starting today in-store at Best Buy or from their website for $199.99

If it is as good as it's 1200 Watt counterpart, this could be a classic !

Google tests Caffeine search engine

Google reports on its blog that its engineers have been working on the next-generation search architecture for Google's web search. The new infrastructure is codenamed "Caffeine", you can check out a preview over here if you want to give it a try. Google's Caffeine promises to be more accurate, faster, and more actual.

For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising video

This developer diary video for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising goes in-depth on the game's Hardcore Mode. The entry also has a gander at players' freedom to interpret orders and create their own plans in the battlefield simulator's open world, and how to control AI squad members. Dragon Rising is slated for an October 6 release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

EVGA P55 FTW motherboard surfaces

EVGA's P55 FTW based motherboard (For teh Win) has been spotted on a Chinese website (update -- who took them from Anandtech apparently). This model seems to be targeted at Core i5 as it comes with socket LGA 1156, but also has mounting holes for socket 775 coolers (very clever eVGA!). The new board adopts a 17 phase power design. Looks like the mobo comes with three BIOSes, of and the pricetag .. yeah 250 USD I'm afraid, which seems to be a far stretch for a mid-range processor motherboard series.

If I where you .. at this price range, for me it would be X58 all the way. But the board definitely looks nice though. Check out some of the photo's (click thumbnails).

Kingston SSDNow V+ solid state disks

Kingston launched Samsung based SSD's called the SSDNow V+, these 2.5" units are available in capacities of 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The 256GB model is the fastest of the pack, it features a sequential read speed of up to 220MB/s, sequential write speed of up to 180MB/s, 6,300 random 4K read IOPS and 291 random 4K write IOPS.

Inno3D GTS 250 TwinTurbo Pro review

Today's tested product is the iChill GeForce GTS 250 that uses an all new updated Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo Pro cooler to provide excellent cooling at reduced sound levels. The reduced temperatures also results in more stable performance and should give you more headroom when overclocking the card.

The card we test today has that G92 GPU clocked at 756 MHz, and GDDR3 memory clocked at 2200 MHz. Next to that the card is packed with 1 GB of memory, a tiny bit pre-overclocked and comes with a wicked cooler from Arctic Cooling as it comes with twin 92mm low-noise fans on the four-heatpipe cooler which offers over 80 percent greater cooling surface area when compared to the stock cooler. The advanced cooling solution on the iChill Accelero brings down temperatures 23C while being virtually silent.

More details on Core i3 and Core i5 processors

More and more details on Intel's upcoming Core i3 and i5 range surface with each day that passes by. Branding will be "simplified into entry-level (Intel Core i3), mid-level (Intel Core i5), and high-level (Intel Core i7)."

As you guys know by now, three processors will be launched initially: Core i5 750, Core i7 860, and Core i7 870. The entire new naming schema in combo with the three different sockets (!) are becoming messy, have a look at the following table:

Core i3

Core i5

Core i7

Core i9

Codename

Wolfdale

Yorkfield

Lynnfield

Clarkdale

Lynnfield

Bloomfield

Gulftown

Process

45nm

45nm

45nm

32nm

45nm

45nm

32nm

Architecture

Core 2

Core 2

Nehalem

Westmere

Nehalem

Nehalem

Westmere

Socket (LGA)

775

775

1156

1156

1156

1366

1366

Intel chipset support

P35, P43, P45, G35, G43, G45, Q35, Q43, Q45, X38, X48

P35, P43, P45, G35, G43, G45, Q35, Q43, Q45, X38, X48

P55, P57, H55, H57, Q57

P57, H57, Q57

P55, P57, H55, H57, Q57

X58

X58

Cores / Threads

2 / 2

4 / 4

4 / 4

2 / 4

4 / 8

4 / 8

6 / 12

Hyper Threading

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

QPI / DMI

DMI

DMI

DMI

DMI

DMI

QPI

QPI

Memory

Dual-channel

Dual-channel

Dual-channel

Dual-channel

Dual-channel

Tri-channel

Tri-channel

Turbo boost

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

L3 cache

No

No

8MB

4MB

8MB

8MB

12MB

45nm IGP

No

No

No

Yes

No

No

No

Availability

Now Core 2 Duo

Now Core 2 Quad

Q4 2009

Q4 2009

Q1 2010

Now Core i7

Q1 2010

So now you know the fundamentals. But here's an overview of what Intel has planned in the long run:

And then this chart surfaced recently, Core i5 dual-core processors with hyper-threading.

There will be some Core i5 models have their model number series beginning in the 600 series leaving the 500 series Core i3 processors behind them, it is reported that Core i3 dual-core processors range between US $123~$143, while Core i5 dual-core ones between $176~$284.

So we just learned the Westmere 32nm processors feature two cores, and HyperThreading technology enabling four logical CPUs (threads). Each core has a dedicated L2 cache of 256 KB, while a 4 MB L3 cache is shared between two cores.

What an astounding confusing stigma Intel is creating with it's over-SKUing, re-branding and three different sockets with accompanying chipsets.

Netgear Home Theater Internet Connection Kit

Netgear has just released a Home Theater Internet Connection Kit, also known as the XAVB1004. This device is targeted to those who want to hook up multiple Ethernet-enabled entertainment devices (ranging from set-top boxes, gaming consoles to Blu-ray players) to the Internet and home networks simultaneously.

This setup will require one to have a high speed powerline connection at home, where it will then have enough bandwidth to handle high-performance applications including HD video streaming, Voice over IP (VoIP), Internet gaming and large file transfers to networked devices. The kit will comprise of a Powerline AV Adapter with 4-port Ethernet Switch (XAV1004) and one Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter (XAV101). Want to go wireless in your entertainment at home while consolidating other living room appliances?

The $179.99 asked for the Netgear Home Theater Internet Connection Kit sounds a bit on the high side [Press Release].

Cryengine 3 technology video

This content comes from the Cryengine 3 engine taken from Crytek presentation at SIGGRAPH 2009. The technique is called Light Propagation Volumes and it is used for Global Illumination and Massive Lighting, both which improve the lighting quality according to Crytek.

Massive lighting is a lighting of limited area with several of light sources (e.g. apartment indoor), according to Crytek.

2TB Western Digital 7200RPM drive spotted

The 2 TB drives are kickass volume wise for a nice movie and music collection, yet a little slow as they most of them are 5400 RPM versions. Hitachi already has a 7200 RPM model out, but WD is prepping to release a 2TB drive at 7200 RPM now as well, in fact apparently it's already spotted in some German shops.

The product will be tagged as RE3 (Raid Edition) model and comes as a RAID edition SATA II drive with 32MB of cache and an 8.7ms seek time. Its official SKU code will be WD2002FBYS. The price will be roughly